1. Field of the Invention
This application relates generally to scanning machine readable codes, determining an expiration of medicinal substance contained in a storage device due to an initial access of the storage device, and printing a label to indicate the expiration due the initial access. The application also relates to an apparatus for scanning and printing labels in medical applications where medicinal substances have variable expiration times due to different environments.
2. Description of Related Art
Medicinal substances may have different expiration times depending on the different environments they encounter. For example, the life expectancy of medicinal substances may drastically shorten after they are initially accessed in a container (e.g. vial) due to oxygen entering the vial and degrading the medicinal substance. For example, a medicinal substance with a shelf life of 6 months in an unopened container may have a shorter shelf life of 12 hours once the container storing the medicinal substance has been breached. Additionally, medicinal substances may have different life expectancies in different containers. A medicinal substance in one container may have a life expectancy of 12 hours. However, the life expectancy of that same medicinal substance in a different container such as a syringe may only be 6 hours.
Traditionally, medicinal substances arriving at a hospital, pharmacy, or other location where the medicinal substance is to be accessed arrive with a label bearing content provided by the supplier or manufacturer. In the event a label is to be administered to a container of the medicinal substance, such labels can be manually created by handwriting the desired label content onto label stock. For instance, technicians preparing a dose of the medicinal substance extract the appropriate amount of the medicinal substance from a vial into a syringe. At a time when the syringe was being prepared, the technician would retrieve the adhesive-backed label stock from a bin and write a notation on the label indicative of the medicinal substance to be administered. Once the syringe was prepared, the hand-written label would be applied to the syringe to notify those who may encounter the syringe of its contents.
Such conventional labeling systems suffer from many drawbacks, and have limited reliability due primarily to human error. Sloppy handwriting can make the label difficult to read, or altogether illegible. Each technician who prepares such a label may also do so in a different manner, or attribute different meanings to the content of a label than another technician. In such situations, the label content is left open to interpretation, and often lacks information essential for proper documentation and record keeping purposes.
Additionally, it is difficult for a technician to keep track of and/or calculate life expectancies of medicinal substances when the life expectancies of the medication vary between the source vial containing the medicinal substance and a syringe or other delivery means for administering the medicinal substance. Thus, medicinal substances that have un-accessed life expectancy in a source container, an accessed life expectancy in a source container, and a delivery life expectancy in a delivery device all complicate the determination of expiration for medicinal substances.